Baxter is not easily deterred when he wants something. For instance, food. At first, he tries to charm me into feeding him -- soft meows, rubbing against my leg, lying coyly at my feet, sitting quietly in the kitchen with pleading eyes fixed on me. If those antics don’t work, then he gets serious and assertive. He sits in front of wherever I might be, stares intently, and lets loose this death-rattling cry, sustained on one note and interrupted only to take a breath before beginning again. There’s no ignoring this scream. I have to do something.
I remind him that he just ate a half hour ago, but he won’t hear it. So I figure out something to satisfy him — a pinch of catnip, a treat morsel, some cat milk, or a diversion like a bird outside the window or a visit to the garage. These distractions work for a little while but they won’t keep him from his primary objective — another meal. Only if I leave the house while he is preoccupied with the consolation prize, will he settle instead for his second heartfelt desire, sleep, and give up on the meal for a while. But this is only a temporary fix. When I return after a few hours, he will return as well to his original mission, and the routine repeats itself. He knows what he wants; he doesn’t forget; and he is resolute in getting it.
What about us? Lent is the time for us to focus our desires on the right things in life, and to set our resolve to follow them. Prayer, fasting and almsgiving are meant to tame our passions for the fleeting pleasures of life, and focus them on the lasting treasure of God’s love for us. Do we want God in our lives? Are we willing to do what it takes to include Him?
Wanting God doesn’t mean that we abandon everything else. We still have to work for a living, raise the children, cheer for our favorite teams, solve our financial problems, get an education, care for our sick and buy groceries among other things. However, with a focus on God, we do these things with an eye to how they serve a bigger purpose. God is present in our work and family, our chores and recreation. Lent should help us see God in these undertakings, and seek His guidance and support. This, in turn, should affect the way we go about fulfilling our regular tasks for living. We bring principles and virtues to bear on them. Everything is not permitted because God counts on us to uphold our dignity and responsibility as His children. Everything should be done with an eye to respecting ourselves and others, serving them and uniting us as a people who share a common Father in God.
Now this may sound too much for the pressures of daily life. How do you sustain the attitudes that come from faith in the face of the pressures to get things done? How do you follow principles of right and wrong in a world that is cut throat and pragmatic? Fortitude is called for. We need a sense of firmness about our convictions and follow through in our actions, even while we do so with compassion and understanding. Fortitude also helps us to start over when we fail. Making a mistake is not a disaster unless we give in to the mistake and give up. The Sacrament of Penance is meant to strengthen our resolve to try again.
How often in the Gospel accounts do we encounter people who persist in getting what they want from Jesus? Think of Simeon waiting in the temple for the Messiah, the Canaanite woman pleading for her possessed daughter, Zacchaeus who wants to see, Nicodemus meeting late at night to understand. Despite the different obstacles they faced, these characters are resolute in their various efforts to seek the Lord and His presence and power in their lives. Faith without fortitude is bound to fail, but fortitude without faith is simply stubbornness, not a true virtue.
Baxter won’t give up when he wants to eat. We are offered the Bread of Life and the Cup of Salvation every Sunday at the Eucharist. Do we have the fortitude to hunger for this food in the way we celebrate and live our faith each day?
